Patriots’ centre Kendall Gray has revealed that he played the finals of the Rwanda Basketball League play offs while injured. The 30-year-old American-Rwandan joined the Patriots last month on a contract that would see him feature for them in playoffs – both the best-of-three semifinals and best-of-five finals. During the games, he made good contributions, for example, in the 5 games that made up the finals, he scored 39 points, registered 35 rebounds and a couple of assists. After Game 3 of the finals, Patriots’ head Coach Ben Olouch said Gray was nursing an injury and he “may not use him for the rest of the games.” However, surprisingly, the player turned up for the 4th game which Patriots won to draw the series 2-2, and on Sunday he also featured in Game 5 as his team lost the trophy to Rwanda Energy Group. In an interview after the game, he told Times Sport that he has played some games through injury because he was willing to push. “I am playing through it (injury) but it’s the final man. This is something that I can never just sit out,” he said. “It (the injury) came at a bad time but I am willing to push through it. I got the heart of a lion, so I am just trying to push through everything,” he added. Asked what his reaction is to the fact that they lost the trophy after putting up a good fight in the five games, Gray said: “First of all, credit to those guys over there (REG). They played well as a unit for five games and we had opportunities to kind of close it out, but those guys stuck well as a team. We just fell short today, which is part of the game, but we will come back stronger for sure.”
